Mind Controls (2006)

Fortune would have it that the Mind Controls' song "Death Cult Shoot-Out" was followed in a recent shuffle by the Skatalites' "Guns of Navarone." The classic ska song was recorded in 1964 while the punk tune was tracked just this past September in Montreal. "Navarone" is tinny, low-fidelity, quite washed out at times and clearly a product of its time and place in a fledgling music industry. The 42-year-old track also sounds a few notches cleaner than anything on Mind Controls' new full-length.

Running with that comparison, Mind Controls are a much more direct band than the Milky Ways. The distorted garage punk sound is unmistakable but there's little psychedelia here. For all the noise he makes, Sultan's really just a student of classic pop songwriting and keeps things short and to the point. Despite the fact that the album opening "Take a Message" was a BBQ song in an earlier life, Mind Controls shy away from the outright R&B / rockabilly sound of Sultan's solo work. Vocally, there's a bit of the New Bomb Turks' rapid delivery with a quirky touch of the Briefs. Mind Controls share a lot of qualities with early Marked Men or even the Million Dollar Marxists, albeit a few intentional notches rougher.

Mind Controls is a fine debut, providing twenty minutes of the most genuine rock'n'roll you'll hear this summer. It's one of those great unimportant punk records that makes no assumptions and doesn't dare take a song over the three-minute mark. That's all I ask for.